Do's & Don'ts - Important Mortgage TIPS When Buying A Home
The following is a list of things we’ve found over the years that come up commonly and could impact your loan application or approval. Please make a note of the items listed below and discuss any which may apply to your scenario with one of our Mortgage bankers. We are here to work as your advocate. Adhering to the tips in the list below will help your loan move through the underwriting process as smoothly as possible.
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Lenders now employ tracking systems that notify them when new credit accounts are opened.
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New accounts can impact your Debt-Ratio/Qualification.
- It also increases the amount of paperwork you will need to provide as any new accounts opened you will need to provide a recent statement to show the amount owed on the account and the monthly obligation.
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Lenders are also notified if you make any new credit inquiries during the loan process.
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Please refrain from making any credit inquiries until after the loan closes and funds.
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In your contract, your mortgage commitment date specifies the date that your financing needs to be approved by.
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After this date, your deposit may become non-refundable.
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Please separate items as you scan them.
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i.e. If you are sending 3 bank statements and a tax return, break it up into 4 separate files.
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When you upload your loan documents to our system or email items to your loan officer, they get input into our paperless system more quickly.
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Try to make sure that there are no missing pages & that they are rotated & sorted in the correct order.
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The cleaner the attachments are the more quickly they will get entered into our system.
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Insurance figures into your Total Monthly Liability for the property and impacts your Debt Ratio.
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Your loan cannot be fully approved without the Final Debt Ratio, therefore if you delay in selecting your insurance agent until the end of the process, it could delay your closing.
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A suggestion is to have your real-estate agent contact the seller to determine who they have been using for insurance since they know the property well and can give you a good estimate as to the cost to insure.
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If you are purchasing a condo, we are not able to submit the Condo Master Insurance for approval without your contents policy (HO6 insurance).
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Condo insurance can take several days to get approved- therefore if you delay in selecting an agent for the HO6 coverage, it can delay the approval process.
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Please do not leave this item until the end of your process.
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We recommend having your Agent selected at least 2 weeks prior to your closing date.
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If you change insurance agents, please notify your loan officer immediately
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Pay close attention to the details of your Loan Conditions. Typically Underwriters will not review your loan conditions until they all have been gathered and resubmitted together.
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Pay attention to the details of the requests from Underwriting: For Example if an updated bank statement is requested, make sure that all pages of the statement are provided.
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i.e. If the statement reads Pg. 1 of 6, double check that all 6 pages of the statement are supplied.
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Pay particular attention to conditions that require you to liquidate funds from Retirement, brokerage accounts etc.
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Underwriters need to track and approve the liquidation prior to issuing final approval on your loan.
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If this step is put off too long it could delay your clear-to-close.
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Please carefully coordinate with your Loan Officer to ensure this is completed with ample time to get the liquidation reviewed/approved by underwriting.
